May 17, 2007 @ 2:25 pm
NYPD Surveilled Jay-Z, Alicia Keys in '04
Documents unsealed in covert ops preceding Republican National Convention.
The City of New York has unsealed NYPD documents which detailed groups and individuals surveilled before the 2004 Republican National Convention after losing a legal battle with the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU). The documents, published in full on the NYCLU website, compiles a list of everyone covertly surveilled in the days preceding the RNC, including but not limited to: The Hip Hop Summit Action Network, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, LL Cool J, and Sean "Puffy" Combs, aka P. Diddy.
The New York Police Department has defended the list, posting a note on its website that "The Intelligence Division's information gathering addressed what those openly talking of anarchist actions and unlawful civil disobedience actually intended to do - not their political opinions."
According to the document, the Hip Hop Summit Action Network - along with Diddy, Russell Simmons, LL, Keys and Jay-Z - was surveilled for having a "protest rally and march" during the convention. It reads that "the participation of" the hip-hop stars "will likely inflate the total number of participants," but that the march had legally applied for a permit of protest.
According to Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the NYCLU, "These documents paint a picture of a surveillance program that was broad, clumsy, and often unlawful. The NYPD failed to differentiate between unlawful behavior and behavior that is not only lawful but should in fact be cherished and protected. Today the public can finally bear witness to that failure."
Page printed from:
http://www.vibe.com/news/news_headlines/2007/05/rnc_docs/
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